Kempower Summer Trainee Stories: Saija & Minh

Every spring, Kempower gets a boost of fresh air when a group of summer trainees arrive at the office. In May 2023, Minh Tran and Saija Mäkinen were a part of this new group of trainees.  Minh joined Kempower as a Data Science Trainee and Saija as a Technical Communications Trainee.

Minh is studying at Tampere University where he starts his master’s degree in the fall. His major is signal processing & machine learning, and he works from the Kempower offices in Tampere. Saija will soon complete her master’s degree at the University of Jyväskylä where she’s studying English. She has been working from the Lahti office & online. In this article, Minh and Saija share what they’ve learned & how the summer has been as a Kempower Summer Trainee.

Working at Kempower was an easy choice

The last years have been busy for Kempower and the growth has been quick. As a new company, it might not be familiar to some students yet. 

Minh shares how he discovered Kempower:

‘’Kempower has an office at my university, and they attend job fairs, so the name was familiar to me. I didn’t exactly know what Kempower does, and I certainly didn’t expect the company to have so many positions in software engineering & data science.’’

‘’When I saw an opening on LinkedIn I decided to give it a go.’’

Sending in an application turned out to be a great decision for Minh.

‘’The application process was quick & smooth. I got an interview quickly and got to speak directly to the manager early in the process. I had my position confirmed already in January [of 2023]. This made Kempower an easy choice for me.’’ 

Learning on the go

Saija feels like her English studies and the courses she has taken in technical communications have supported her in her work.

‘’If I would’ve started without any studies the learning curve would’ve been bigger. My studies helped me to get started quicker.’’

The daily work has taught her a lot of the practical skills needed in technical communications.

‘’In this field, you learn a lot in practice, the use of the different programs used in technical communications is not really taught in school. I feel like there’s always more to learn.’’

A few of the tasks she performs as a technical communications trainee are data entry & tabulation, longer writing tasks, editing wiring diagrams, and collaborating with engineers to find the correct information for manuals.

‘’I’ve been able to participate in a variety of different tasks. The work has been varied, and I’ve been trusted with more difficult tasks as well.’’

Minh has a background in research work at the university, he’s now learning how work can look different at a fast-growing company like Kempower:

‘’There’s a lot of differences between research work and working at Kempower. The goal of research is more long-term, and it takes longer to reach a conclusion. [At Kempower] there are more small daily tasks. It took me some time to adapt to the company working culture [compared to typical research work].’’ 

The most common tasks for Minh as a Data Science Trainee have been coding, acquiring & researching data, and developing & improving algorithms.

‘’I’ve learned how to use different tools such as new coding tools, databases & cloud tools that I wasn’t that familiar with before.’’

Getting support from the team

Saija has enjoyed the fact that Kempower has an in-house technical communications team and a technical illustrator.

‘’The team has many experienced professionals and I’ve been able to learn a lot from them. This has enabled me to get a broad view of the field and the different tasks that exist within technical communications.’’

As a trainee getting support from your team is essential for your growth and it enables you to reach your full potential.

‘’I’ve always been able to ask the team for help and the threshold for it has been low. They have taught me things from scratch if I haven’t been familiar with them.’’

Minh works in the Data Science team as a part of the ChargEye unit.

‘’The team is amazing. It’s quite big with around 7-8 people, each person has their own duty. Some handle the back-end data & some work with the cloud.’’

‘’I’ve gotten a lot of support from the team lead, as well as from other members of the team.’’

Minh was quite surprised by the good team spirit. The team often goes for lunch together and a team-building day they spent climbing was memorable for him.

Gaining transferrable skills for the future

Both Minh and Saija feel like they have acquired many new skills during the traineeship. For Saija one thing stands out.

She shares, ‘’the biggest thing I’ve learned is how to organize my work and to work independently. I work online quite often, and I need to know when to take breaks and keep myself energized.’’

Minh highlights the soft skills he has acquired at Kempower.

‘’I’ve learned professionalism and working in a team; communication is important.  You can’t overthink things to be able to use your time efficiently.’’

Was the Kempower Summer Traineeship worth it?

We asked Minh and Saija if they would recommend doing a traineeship at Kempower for other students.

Minh shares, ‘’I would recommend a traineeship at Kempower 100%. You can get responsibility and participate in more demanding tasks quite quickly. The EV charging market is growing fast, and you can accompany it from the inside. Kempower is a young company, and the team spirit is great. Everybody seems to have a nice time at Kempower.’’

Saija adds:

‘’New team members and trainees are received well; you are equal with others.’’

‘’I feel more confident with my skills after this traineeship. Kempower has been a great company for my first job in the technical communications field.’’

Would you like to become a Kempower Summer Trainee? Vacancies start to open in December each year, make sure to follow our career page.